Ratings Watch: More Good News for the SNL 40th Special and Fox’s Growing Empire
Last Sunday’s Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special keeps paying off for NBC. DVR and video-on-demand viewership for the first three days after the telecast added another 3.3 million viewers to the tally, bringing the special’s total to 26.5 million.
According to NBC, that’s now the show’s third-biggest audience in the history of Nielsen people meters (which began in 1987), behind the Saturday Night Live 15th Anniversary telecast (32.1 million on September 24, 1989 (and the SNL Presidential Bash special on November 1, 1992 (28.8 million).
It’s also now NBC’s most-watched primetime entertainment telecast (excluding Super Bowl nights) since May 6, 2004 (28.4 million for ER on the night of the Friends series finale).
In other ratings news, Fox’s Empire continues to impress as this season’s only broadcast drama to average higher than a 5.0 rating among adult 18-49 in the Live+3 ratings. The show is currently averaging a 5.7 rating in that measurement.
Also, according to Rentrak, the first three episodes of Empire were the top 3 most-viewed titles overall on VOD in the month of January.
Elsewhere, even against tough competition (the SNL 40 Red Carpet pre-show), last Sunday’s edition of 60 Minutes attracted its highest-rated episode in a month. That’s likely because the episode featured the final report by late correspondent Bob Simon, a look into a promising new drug candidate to combat the Ebola virus. (This Sunday’s 60 Minutes is being expanded to 90 minutes as a full tribute to Simon.)
Here’s the top 25 show ranker for the week ending February 15, 2015.
RANK |
SHOW & NETWORK |
LIVE+3 |
WATCHED |
1 |
Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary NBC |
26.5 |
23.1 |
2 |
NCIS CBS |
21.5 |
18.8 |
3 |
NCIS: New Orleans CBS |
18.7 |
16.2 |
4 |
The Walking Dead AMC |
17.5 |
12.3 |
5 |
Empire Fox |
15.4 |
12 |
6 |
Scorpion CBS |
14.9 |
11.9 |
7 |
Blue Bloods CBS |
14.8 |
11.9 |
8 |
Modern Family ABC |
13.3 |
9.8 |
9 |
NCIS: Los Angeles CBS |
13.2 |
10.4 |
10 |
The Blacklist NBC |
13.1 |
8.2 |
11 |
Criminal Minds CBS |
12.8 |
10 |
13 |
Hawaii Five-0 CBS |
12.6 |
9.8 |
14 |
American Idol (Wednesday) Fox |
12.3 |
10.7 |
16 |
The Big Bang Theory CBS |
12.2 |
11.4 |
17 |
Saturday Night Live 40th Red Carpet NBC |
12 |
11.3 |
19 |
Mom CBS |
11.5 |
10.2 |
20 |
American Idol (Thursday) Fox |
11.4 |
9.6 |
21 |
Two and a Half Men CBS |
11.1 |
9.3 |
23 |
The Mentalist CBS |
10.9 |
9.1 |
25 |
Mike & Molly CBS |
10.6 |
9.3 |
Total viewers; in millions |